System and method for audio content generation

ABSTRACT

A system and method for generating audio content. Content is automatically retrieved from an original website according to a predetermined schedule to generate retrieved content. The retrieved content is converted to one or more audio file. A hierarchy is assigned to the one or more audio files to provide an audible website that mimics a hierarch of the retrieved content as represented at the original website. The audible website is stored in a database for retrieval by one or more users. A first user input is received indicating an attempt to access the original website. The audible website is indicated as being associated with the original website in response to the user selection. Portion of the audible website are played in response to a second user input.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priority to co-pending U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 11/682,843, entitled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUDIBLE WEB SITENAVIGATION,” filed Mar. 6, 2007, which claims the benefit of the filingdate of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/778,975, entitled “METHODSAND SYSTEMS FOR AUDIBLE WEB SITE NAVIGATION,” filed on Mar. 6, 2006,which is incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments consistent with this invention relate generally to dataprocessing for the purpose of navigating a computer database, and moreparticularly relate to a method and apparatus for creating audibleoutput for the use on the web, on mobile phone, and mp3 devices, andenabling any user, but especially visually-impaired and disabled users,to access and navigate the output based on audio cues.

BACKGROUND

Websites and many other computer files are created with the assumptionthat those who are using the files can see the file content on acomputer monitor. Because websites are developed with the assumptionthat users can see, the sites do not convey much content audibly, nor dothe sites convey navigation architecture, such as menus and navigationbars, audibly. The result is that visually-impaired and physicallydisabled users have difficulty using such websites.

Conventional systems have been developed to help visually-impaired usersuse websites, but these systems often require software and hardware tobe installed at the user's computer. Many of these systems simply usescreen reading technology alone or in combination with print magnifyingsoftware applications. The systems have shown to be costly, unwieldy,and inconvenient. Furthermore, because such technology is installed onthe user's computer, visually-impaired users cannot effectively useconventional computer files anywhere except at their own computers. As aconsequence, websites and other computer files are often inaccessible tovisually-impaired user anywhere except at home.

Several conventional systems have been developed to overcome thisproblem by enabling visually-impaired users to access some computerinformation using any touchtone telephone. In essence, a caller accessesa special computer by telephone. The computer has access to computerfiles that contain audio components, which can be played back though thetelephone to the user. For example, a text file that has been translatedby synthetic speech software into an audio file can be played back tothe user over the telephone. Some systems access audio files that havealready been translated; some translate text-to-speech on the fly uponthe user's command. To control which files are played, the user pressesthe keys on the touchtone keypad to send a sound that instructs thecomputer which audio file to play.

Unfortunately, these systems also have drawbacks. Large files or thosehaving multiple nesting layers turn the system into a giant automatedvoice response system, which is difficult to navigate and often veryfrustrating. Typically only text is played back to the user. Graphics,music, images and navigation systems like those on a website are not.Furthermore, the metallic voice of the computer-generated speech doesnot convey meaning with inflection like a human does, and is tedious tolisten to, especially for significant volumes of information.

SUMMARY

One embodiment provides a system and method for generating audiocontent. Content may be automatically retrieved from an original websiteaccording to a predetermined schedule to generate retrieved content. Theretrieved content may be converted to one or more audio file. Ahierarchy may be assigned to the one or more audio files to provide anaudible website that mimics a hierarch of the retrieved content asrepresented at the original website. The audible website may be storedin a database for retrieval by one or more users. A first user input maybe received indicating an attempt to access the original website. Theaudible website may be indicated as being associated with the originalwebsite in response to the user selection. Portions of the audiblewebsite may be played in response to a second user input.

Another embodiment provides a server for generating audio content. Theserver may include a network interface operable communicate with a webapplication through a network. The web application may be accessible byone or more users to receive a selection of an original website. Theserver may also include logic include a reading engine for retrievingcontent from the original website. The reading engine marks the contentfor scraping according to a hierarchical organization. The logic mayalso include a harvesting engine for harvesting the content from theoriginal website according to a predetermined schedule to generateharvested content. The logic may also include a filtering engineoperable to filter the harvested content to remove source codereferences to generate filtered content. The logic may also include atext-to-speech engine for converting the filtered content to an audiblewebsite including one or more audio files. The logic may also include adatabase for storing the audible website for access the one or moreusers through the web application.

Another embodiment provides a server for generating an audible website.The server may include a processor for executing a set of instructionsand a memory for storing the set of instructions. The set ofinstructions may be executed to automatically scrape content from anoriginal website according to a predetermined schedule to generatescraped content, converting the scraped content to one or more audiofiles, assign a hierarchy to the one or more audio files to provide anaudible website that mimics a hierarchy of the scraped content asrepresented at the original website, store the audible website in adatabase for retrieval by one or more users, receive a first user inputindicative of an attempt to access the original website, indicate theaudible website is associated with the original website in response tothe user selection, and play portions of the audible website in responseto a second user input.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate an implementation of methods andsystems consistent with the present invention and, together with thedescription, serve to explain advantages and principles consistent withthe invention. In the drawings,

FIG. 1 illustrates the Internet;

FIG. 2 illustrates an exemplary computer network;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary home page of an original website;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary hierarchy of pages in a website;

FIG. 5 illustrates a keyboard navigation arrangement consistent with thepresent invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates an interaction among components of one embodimentconsistent with the present invention;

FIG. 7 illustrates a method for converting an XML feed to speechconsistent with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 8 illustrates a method for human-enabled conversion of a web siteto speech consistent with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 9 illustrates a method for converting a published web site tospeech consistent with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 10 illustrates a method for providing an audio description of aweb-based photo consistent with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 illustrates a method for converting published interactive formsto speech consistent with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 12 illustrates a method for indexing podcasts consistent with oneembodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary media player consistent with oneembodiment of the present invention; and

FIG. 14 illustrates a computer system that can be configured to performmethods consistent with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Methods and systems consistent with the present invention create audiofiles from files created originally for sighted users. Files createdoriginally for primarily sighted-users are referred to herein asoriginal files. An organized collection of original files is referred toherein as an original website. Thus, a hierarchy and navigation systemmay be assigned to the audio files based on the original website design,providing for access to and navigation of the audio files.

The audio files may be accessed via a user's computer. An indicator maybe included in an original file that will play an audible tone or othersound upon opening the file, thereby indicating to a user that the fileis audibly accessible. Upon hearing the sound, the user indicates to thecomputer to open the associated audio file. The content of the audiofile is played though an audio interface, which may be incorporated intothe user's computer or a standalone device.

The user may navigate the audio files using keystroke navigation througha navigation portal. Unlike the touchtone telephone systems whichrequire an audio input device, embodiments consistent with the presentinvention may utilize toneless navigation. In one embodiment consistentwith the present invention, the user may use voice commands that aredetected by the navigation portal for navigation. In yet anotherembodiment, the user actuates a touch screen for navigation. Thenavigation portal may be implemented on a computer system, but may alsobe implemented in a telephone, television, personal digital assistant,or other comparable device.

Reference will now be made in detail to an implementation consistentwith the present invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.

One embodiment consistent with the present invention may be applied tooriginal web pages hosted on remote computers of a global computernetwork, for example, the Internet. FIG. 1 illustrates a plurality ofusers' computers, indicated as user_(i) . . . user_(x), communicatingwith each other through remote computers networked together. Anotherembodiment consistent with the present invention may be used for smallercomputer networks, such as local area or wide area networks. FIG. 2illustrates such a network, where a plurality of users' computers, 21,22, 23 and 24 communicate through a server 25. In this example, eachuser's computer may have a standalone audio interface 26 to play audiofiles. Alternatively, the audio interface could be incorporated into theusers' computers.

In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, audio files maybe created by converting text, images, sound and other rich mediacontent of the original files into audio files through a site analysisprocess. In this embodiment, a human reads the text of the original fileand the speech is recorded. The human also describes non-text filecontent and file navigation options aloud and this speech is recorded.Non-speech content, such as music or sound effects, is also recorded,and these various audio components are placed into one or more files.Any type of content, such as but not limited to FLASH, HTML, XML, .NET,JAVA, or streaming video, may be described audibly in words, music orother sounds, and can be incorporated into the audio files. A hierarchyis assigned to each audio file based on the original computer filedesign such that when the audio file is played back through an audiointerface, sound is given forth. The user may hear all or part of thecontent of the file and can navigate within the file by responding tothe audible navigation cues.

In this embodiment, an original website is converted to an audiblewebsite. Each file, or page, of the original website is converted to aseparate audio file, or audio page. The collection of associated audiofiles may reside on a remote computer or server. For example, FIG. 3illustrates the home page 30 of an original website. A human reads aloudthe text content 31 of the home page 30 and the speech is recorded intoan audio file. The human says aloud the menu options 32, 33, 34, 35, 36which are “LOG IN”, “PRODUCTS”, “SHOWCASE”, “WHAT'S NEW”, and “ABOUTUS”, respectively, that are visible on the original website. This speechis also recorded.

Similarly, a human reads aloud the text content and menu options ofother files in the original website and the speech is recorded intoaudio files. In this example, key 1 is assigned to menu option 32, LOGIN; key 2 is assigned to menu option 33, PRODUCTS; key 3 is assigned tomenu option 34, SHOWCASE; key 4 is assigned to menu option 35, WHAT'SNEW; key 5 is assigned to menu option 36, ABOUT US. Other visualcomponents of the original website may also be described in speech, suchas images or colors of the website, and recorded into one or more audiofiles. Non-visual components may also be recorded into the audio files,such as music or sound effects.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary hierarchy of the original files which form theoriginal website 40. Menu option 32 will lead to the user to file 42,which in turn leads to the files 42 _(i) . . . v. Menu option 33 willlead to the user to file 43, which in turn leads to the files 43 _(i) .. . iii. Menu option 34 will lead to the user to file 44, which in turnleads to the files 44 _(i) . . . iv, similarly for all the originalfiles of the original website. The collection of audio files will followa hierarchy substantially similar to that shown in FIG. 4 to form anaudible website which is described audibly.

In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, text isinputted into a content management system (CMS) and automaticallyconverted to speech. Upon acquisition of the text, a third partytext-to-speech engine, such as AT&T Natural Voices or Microsoft Reader,is invoked and an audio file, such as a .wav file, or .mp3 file iscreated. The audio file may be encoded according to a standardspecification, such as a standard sampling rate. Once encoded, the audiofile is uploaded to a Content Delivery Network (CDN) and a URL path isestablished for content access. The URL path of the audio content isassociated with a navigation value in a navigation database. Duringbrowsing, a user selection having a navigation value is mapped to anaudio content URL using the navigation database. The audio content isthen acquired and played on the client system.

In another embodiment consistent with the present invention, syndicatedweb site feeds are read and structured information documents areconverted into audio enabled web sites. In one example, the syndicatedweb site feed is a Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and the structureinformation document is an XML file. An RSS URL is first entered intothe CMS. An RSS scraping logic is entered into the content managementsystem and upon predefined schedule, an RSS content creation engine isinvoked. The RSS content creation engine extracts the content titles,descriptions, and order from the feed following the RSS structureprovided from the feed. The URL path to the story content is deployedinto a scraping engine and the text is extracted using the scrapinglogic. The content is then filtered to remove all formatting andnon-contextual text and code.

A text-to-speech conversion is completed for both titles and main storycontent. The converted titles and content, now in an audio format suchas a .wav file, are uploaded to a CDN and a URL path is established forcontent access. The URL path of the audio content is associated with anavigation value in a navigation database. During browsing, a userselection having a navigation value is mapped to an audio content URLusing the navigation database. The audio content is then acquired andplayed on the client system. Through XML integration, the content isdisplayed in text within a media player and when selected usingkeystrokes or click through the file is played over the web.

The structure of a sample RSS feed file is given below:

  <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8” ?> <rss version=“2.0”xmlns:blogChannel= “http://backend.userland.com/blogChannelModule”><channel>  <title> </title>  <link> </link>  <description />  <language></language>  <copyright> </copyright>  <generator>XML::RSS<generator> <ttl> <ttl> <image>  <title> </title>  <url> </url>  <link> </link> </image> <item>  <title> </title>  <link> </link>  <description>description>  <category> </category>  <guid isPermaLink=“false”> </guid> <pubDate> </pubDate> </item>  </channel>  <rss>

Note that a feed file may have multiple <item> tags. Each <item> tag haschild tags that provide information about the item. The <title> tag isthe tag the system reads and uses when it attempts to determine if anitem has changed since it was last accessed. A user creating or editingmenus may have the option of selecting RSS as one of the content types.The sequence of events that will eventually lead to menu contentcreation if the user chooses RSS as a content type are as follows: Menucreation; Reading; Scraping; Filtration; Audio generation; and XMLgeneration.

The Menu Name, Feed Location and the Advanced Options fields areavailable if the RSS Feed option is selected in the Content Type field.Clicking a Browse button in the Menu Name Audio field may launch adialog box to let the user select an audio file. Clicking a Save buttonwill save the details of the new menu in the system. The new menu willbe in queue for generating the audio for the respective items. Thesystem runs a scheduler application that initiates TTS conversion formenus. This scheduler may also initiate the pulling of the feed file.Thereafter, control will move to the Reading Engine. Clicking a Cancelbutton will exit the page. The scheduler application and reading engineare described below.

In one embodiment consistent with the present invention, a navigationportal may include a keyboard having at least eighteen keys. Asillustrated in FIG. 5, the keys may include ten numbered menu-optionkeys, four directional arrow keys, a space bar, a home key, and two keysfor volume adjustment. The volume keys may be left and right bracketkeys. The navigation system may be standard across all participatingwebsites and the keys may function as follows:

the keys numbered 1 though 9 select associated menu options 51;

the key numbered 0 selects help 52;

the up arrow selects forward navigation 53;

the down arrow selects backward navigation 54;

the right arrow key selects the next menu option 55;

the left arrow key selects the previous menu option 56

the spacebar repeats the audio track 57;

the home key selects the main menu 58;

the right bracket key increases the volume of the audible website 59;

the left bracket key decreases the volume of the audible website 60.

The keys may be arranged in clusters as shown in FIG. 5, using astandard numeric 10-key pad layout, or use alternative layouts such as atypewriter keyboard layout or numeric telephone keypad layout. Othertypes of devices may be used to instruct computer navigation. Forexample, for users who are not dexterous, a chin switch or asip-and-puff tube can be used in place of a keyboard to navigate theaudible websites.

FIG. 6 illustrates an interaction among components of one embodimentconsistent with the present invention. Web application 601 provides aweb-based portal through which users may interact with systemsconsistent with the present invention. Uploaded audio files, XML datafiles and RSS feeds are provided to server 603 via web application 601.Server 603 includes a reading engine 605 for reading RSS feeds, ascheduler application 607 for scheduling the reading of RSS feeds, ascraping engine 609 for scraping XML and web page source code, afiltering engine for filtering scraped content, and a text to speech(TTS) engine 611 for converting text-based web content to audio content.Server 603 provides audio content to the Content Delivery Network (CDN)613, which can then provide content to a user through web application601. Server 603 further provides XML data files to a database 617 forstorage and retrieval.

The reading engine 605 is invoked at regular intervals by the scheduler607 application on the server 603. It pulls the feed file and parses itto assemble a list of items syndicated from the feed URI specified. Thefirst time the feed file is pulled from its URI, the reading engine 605inspects it and prepare a list of items in the file. These items arecreated as submenus under the menu for which the feed URI is specified(here onwards, the “base menu”).

If this file has previously been read and parsed, each item (i.e., the<item> tag's content) are compared with the submenu at the respectiveposition under the base menu. If the titles do not match, the system mayassume that the item has changed and will mark the new item, as acandidate for scraping and the existing item would be removed. In oneembodiment, items are compared like this one at a time. Once the itemshave been compared, this engine hands over control to the scrapingengine 609.

The scraping engine 609 accepts the list of items marked for scraping bythe reading engine 605. It reads one at a time, the actual links (URLs)to content pages for these items and performs an actual fetch of thecontent from those pages. This content may be acquired “as is” from thepages. This content is then handed on to the filtering engine 615. Thecontent handed over by the scraping engine 609 may be raw HTML content.The raw HTML content could contain many unclean HTML elements, scripts,etc. These elements are removed by the filtering engine 615 to arrive athuman-understandable text content suitable for storage in the menusystem as Menu content text. The filtering engine 615 thus outputs cleancontent for storage in the system's menus. This content is then updatedfor the respective menus in the system as content text. The menus thatare updated will become inactive (if not already so) and will be inqueue for content audio generation.

Audio is generated for the updated content in the menus that have beenupdated by RSS feeds at the closest audio generation sequence executedby the TTS engine 611. Finally XML Data files may be generated/updatedwith the new menu name, content and audio file name/path. These XMLfiles may be used by a front-end flash application to display the Menu,Content or to play the Audio. An indicator is included in an originalwebsite that activates a tone upon a user's visit indicating that thewebsite is audibly accessible. Upon hearing the tone, a user presses akey on his keyboard and enters the audible website. The original websitemay close or remain open. The user may then navigate the audible websiteusing a keystroke command system. Audible narration is played through anaudio interface at the user's computer, describing text and menus andindicating which keystrokes to press to listen to the other audio webfiles with in the audible website. Users may thus navigate websitemenus, fast forward and rewind content, and move from website to websitewithout visual clues.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart illustrating a method for converting an XML feedto speech consistent with one embodiment of the present invention. AnRSS XML feed is entered in a web application (step 710). The XML/RSSpath is read by a content management system and text content isextracted from the feed, indexed into menus, and associated with aweb-based content URL (step 720). For each menu item created, serverscreate an association with a web page and a scrape logic that providescoordinates for source code text extraction, extract the text, filterthe text to remove source code references, and then forward the filteredtext to the TTS engine (step 730). The TTS engine is then invoked andcreates a sound file that is transferred to the CDN, and XML data forthe web application is stored as a node in the database (step 740).

FIG. 8 is a flow chart illustrating a method for human-enabledconversion of a web site to speech consistent with one embodiment of thepresent invention. First, a human voice is recorded from any digitaldevice or desktop application (step 810). A user then uploads menu andcontent files through an administration panel, and content is convertedto an .mp3 file format, indexed, and associated with the intendeddatabase content and menu nodes (step 820). One of ordinary skill in theart will recognize that the content may be converted to any existing orfuture-developed sound file format. The resulting content is deliveredto the CDN for delivery to other users, to the database as a URL andtext-based label, and to the web application as XML data for navigation(step 830).

FIG. 9 is a flow chart illustrating a method for converting a publishedweb site to speech consistent with one embodiment of the presentinvention. Website content is pulled through a browser on a presetschedule (step 910). The source code is read by a content managementsystem and text content is extracted from the source code, indexed intomenus, and associated with a web-based content URL (step 920). For eachmenu item created, servers create an association with a web page and ascrape logic that provides for source code text extraction, extract thetext, filter the text to remove source code references, and then forwardthe filtered text to the TTS engine (step 930). The TTS engine is theninvoked and creates a sound file that is transferred to the CDN, and XMLdata for the web application is stored as a node in the database (step940).

FIG. 10 is a flow chart illustrating a method for providing an audiodescription of a web-based photo consistent with one embodiment of thepresent invention. A photo is saved to the server via the web-basedapplication (step 1010). A text description of the photo is thenuploaded via the web application (step 1020). Alternatively, a user mayupload a voice description of the photo via the web application. Thetext description of the photo is then sent to the TTS engine, whichcreates an audible description of the photo and uploads the descriptionto the CDN (step 1030).

FIG. 11 is a flow chart illustrating a method for converting publishedinteractive forms to speech consistent with one embodiment of thepresent invention. An existing web-based form is recreated using textinputs in the web application (step 1110). The text is forwarded to theTTS engine, which creates audible prompts for various fields in theweb-based form (step 1120). An end user then accesses the audible formand enters data into the fields according to the audio prompts (step1130).

FIG. 12 is a flow chart illustrating a method for indexing podcastsconsistent with one embodiment of the present invention. A URL for apodcast is entered via the web application (step 1210). The podcast URLpath is read by the servers and text menu names are created from thefeed, indexed into menus, and associated with the content URL (step1220). The TTS engine is invoked and the menu item content is convertedinto an audible content menu (step 1230). The audible content menu isthen delivered to the CDN and XML is created to point to the podcastfrom the web application (step 1240).

FIG. 13 illustrates an exemplary media player consistent with oneembodiment of the present invention. A media player consistent with anembodiment of the present invention is now described. At any point theend user has the option of pressing ‘Home’ to return to the main menu,‘#’ for the help menu, ‘N’ for the now playing view, ‘S’ to Search, ‘P’for the preferences menu. N now playing is the selected tab, whichdisplays volume control, playback controls (play is highlighted orange(#FF8737) because this sample view assumes an audio track is beingplayed. If not playing a highlighted pause button should display.Likewise, if the arrow keys are—‘right, left, up, down’—or the audiocontrols—‘[‘or ’]’—are pressed, the button is intended to highlightorange.) To the right of these controls may be the Player Status area,which displays the metadata for the audio file. If playing, ‘Playing’displays. Other play states should include ‘Buffering’, ‘Paused’,‘Stopped’. The player may also display the bit-rate at which the audiotrack is playing (if possible). Next, it displays the Track Title Name(this should only display a given # of characters and if the title ofthe track is longer than the maximum # of characters, the title shouldbe truncated and followed by three periods (‘ . . . ’). Below this areader may see a navigation bar that displays the 0-100 value of theaudio track playing. Lastly, a reader may see a current track timedisplay and the total audio track time display. The Esc button (which,again, would highlight if pressed) is provided to allow the user to exitthe player and return to the normal website.

Below the N now playing tab, there may be Surf by Sound Message Center,which provides simple text cues. Also, if the end user has Subtitlesturned on, this is where the text being read would be displayed. To theright of the message center may be the navigation choices In a grey areaof the nay selection, there may be ‘/more navigation info ([number] ofoptions)’ text. This helps the user follow the path of their navigation.For example if on a homepage with 6 menu options, this are would display‘(/home (6 options)’. Further if an end-user chose the 5th menu option(e.g. News & Events) which, for perhaps had 12 menu options, thenavigation listing would update and the text area would now display‘/News & Events (12 options)’. If there are 12 menu options, the ‘moreselections >>’ text would appear more prevalently and the end user wouldhave the option of seeing what those options are by clicking the button(which, again, would make the button highlight orange). Likewise, ifthere were more than 10 options for any given menu, the navigationlisting may automatically advance and display 6-10 in the nav box on theleft, 11-15 on the right, etc.).

The search view assumes the end user pressed S from within the defaultview (see above). Before searching, the audio menu may allow the enduser to choose whether they want to search the current site they are onor the a Surf by Sound Portal, which, if selected, would direct the userto the surf by sound portal. Once selected, they would thenautomatically be cued up to begin typing their search request. If AudioKey Playback is on, a reader may hear their key strokes. Also, a readermay see that the Message Center displays helpful text description ofwhat they are doing (i.e. it coincides with the general text beingread). And the ‘/search (2 options)’ text is displayed since they are onthe search tab and there are 2 options to choose from. Lastly, pressing‘E’ (which would trigger the highlighted orange) within either theSearch or Preferences Menu would Exit the menu and return to the defaultview.

The preferences view assumes that the user pressed P from within thedefault view. First, this tab displays the Bandwidth of the user'smachine this is an automatically generated test that was conducted whenthe first opened the player. From within this view the Message Center isupdated with information pertaining the general process being describedvia audio and the nav options coincide with the options from within thispreferences tab. The first option is to turn ‘Subtitles’ On or Off. Ifon, the media player displays the text being read in the message centerdisplay box. The other options within this tab would be turning on oroff ‘Screen Reader Mode’, ‘Audio Key-Press’, and Magnify Mode'. Lastly,it may also give the user the option of displaying the default view orthe ‘Player Only’. ‘Player Only’ display would get rid of (hide) themessage center and navigation options boxes.

An embodiment consistent with the present invention may include acontrol panel to let the administrator manage third party sites. Theuser may have access to a Manage 3rd Party Sites link in theadministration panel under Site Management menu. The administrator maysort the grid on Site Name, Site Contact and Create Date. Clicking asite name may move control to the menu management section for aparticular third party site. Control moves to MANAGE THIRD PARTY MENUS.Clicking a site URL may bring up the home page of the site in a newbrowser window. This page may display a media player for the third partysite. Clicking an icon may move control to CREATE THIRD PARTY SITE.Fields prefixed with “*” are required fields. The Username and E-mailmust be unique in the system. Clicking the Create button creates the newaccount. An e-mail may be sent to the administrator's account. Controlthen moves to the previous page. Clicking the Cancel buttonunconditionally exits the page. Clicking the Back button moves controlto the previous page.

Turning to FIG. 14, an exemplary computer system that can be configuredas a computing system for executing the methods as previously describedas consistent with the present invention is now described. Computersystem 1401 includes a bus 1403 or other communication mechanism forcommunicating information, and a processor 1405 coupled with bus 1403for processing the information. Computer system 1401 also includes amain memory 1407, such as a random access memory (RAM) or other dynamicstorage device, coupled to bus 1403 for storing information andinstructions to be executed by processor 1405. In addition, main memory1407 may be used for storing temporary variables or other intermediateinformation during execution of instructions to be executed by processor1405. Computer system 1401 further includes a read only memory (ROM)1409 or other static storage device coupled to bus 1403 for storingstatic information and instructions for processor 1405. A storage device1411, such as a magnetic disk or optical disk, is provided and coupledto bus 1403 for storing information and instructions.

According to one embodiment, processor 1405 executes one or moresequences of one or more instructions contained in main memory 1407.Such instructions may be read into main memory 1407 from anothercomputer-readable medium, such as storage device 1411. Execution of thesequences of instructions in main memory 1407 causes processor 1405 toperform the process steps described herein. One or more processors in amulti-processing arrangement may also be employed to execute thesequences of instructions contained in main memory 1407. In alternativeembodiments, hard-wired circuitry may be used in place of or incombination with software instructions. Thus, embodiments are notlimited to any specific combination of hardware circuitry and software.

Further, the instructions to support the system interfaces and protocolsof system 1401 may reside on a computer-readable medium. The term“computer-readable medium” as used herein refers to any medium thatparticipates in providing instructions to processor 1405 for execution.Common forms of computer-readable media include, for example, a floppydisk, a flexible disk, hard disk, magnetic tape, a CD-ROM, magnetic,optical or physical medium, a RAM, a PROM, and EPROM, a FLASH-EPROM, anyother memory chip or cartridge, or any other medium from which acomputer can read, either now or later discovered.

Computer system 1401 also includes a communication interface 1419coupled to bus 1403. Communication interface 1419 provides a two-waydata communication coupling to a network link 1421 that is connected toa local network 1423. Wireless links may also be implemented. In anysuch implementation, communication interface 1419 sends and receivessignals that carry digital data streams representing various types ofinformation.

While there has been illustrated and described embodiments consistentwith the present invention, it will be understood by those skilled inthe art that various changes and modifications may be made andequivalents may be substituted for elements thereof without departingfrom the true scope of the invention. Therefore, it is intended thatthis invention not be limited to the particular embodiments disclosed.

1. A method for generating audio content, comprising: automaticallyretrieving content from an original website according to a predeterminedschedule to generate retrieved content; converting the retrieved contentto audio files, utilizing a processor; assigning a hierarchy to audiofiles to provide an audible website that mimics a hierarchy of theretrieved content as represented at the original website; storing theaudible website in a database for retrieval by one or more users;receiving a first user input indicative of an attempt to access theoriginal website; indicating the audible website is associated with theoriginal website in response to the user selection; and playing portionsof the audible website in response to a second user input.
 2. The methodaccording to claim 1, wherein indicating the audible website comprises:delivering an audio file, which when executed by a computer systemassociated with a user having made the user selection causes thecomputer system to play an audible tone.
 3. The method according toclaim 1, further comprising: filtering the retrieved content to removesource code references prior to performing the converting.
 4. The methodaccording to claim 3, wherein the converting is performed by atext-to-speech engine, and wherein the filtering is performed by afiltering engine.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein thecontent is text content and non-text content, and wherein the textcontent includes menu content and is read by a text-to-speech converterto convert the retrieved content to the audio files, and wherein thenon-text content is described by the text-to-speech converter to convertthe retrieved content to the audio files.
 6. The method according toclaim 1, wherein the hierarchy is substantially similar to the originalwebsite, and wherein the hierarchy is navigated in response to userselections.
 7. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:generating a toneless navigation interface enabling a user to navigatethe audible website.
 8. The method according to claim 1, furthercomprising: uploading the audible website to a content delivery network;establishing a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) path for accessing theaudible website; mapping pages of the original website to pages of theaudible website.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein the mappingis performed utilizing a navigation value associated with the audiblewebsite by a navigation database, and wherein the audible website isacquired by associating the user selection with the audible websiteutilizing the navigation value.
 10. The method according to claim 1,wherein the original website is a Really Simple Syndication (RSS), andwherein the automatically retrieving is performed to generate astructure information document.
 11. The method according to claim 1,wherein the user selection is received through a navigation system thatincludes some or all of: menu options, forward and backward navigationoptions, and means for increasing and decreasing volume.
 12. A serverfor generating audio content, the server comprising: a network interfaceoperable to communicate with a web application through a network, theweb application is accessible by one or more users to receive aselection of an original website; logic including: a reading engine forretrieving content from the original website, wherein the reading enginemarks the content for scraping according to a hierarchical organization;a harvesting engine for harvesting the content from the original websiteaccording to a predetermined schedule to generate harvested content; afiltering engine operable to filter the harvested content to removesource code references to generate filtered content; a text-to-speechengine for converting the filtered content to an audible websiteincluding audio files organized in a hierarchy that mimics a hierarchyof the retrieved content as represented at the original website; and adatabase for storing the audible website for access the one or moreusers through the web application.
 13. The server according to claim 12,wherein the logic further comprises: a scheduler operable to set thepredetermined schedule.
 14. The server according to claim 12, whereinthe content includes text content and non-text content.
 15. The serveraccording to claim 14, wherein the text content includes menu contentand is read by the text-to-speech engine to generate the audio files,and wherein the non-text content is described by the text-to-speechengine to generate the audio files.
 16. A server for generating anaudible website, comprising: a processor for executing a set ofinstructions; and a memory for storing the set of instructions, the setof instructions are executed to: automatically scrape content from anoriginal website according to a predetermined schedule to generatescraped content; converting the scraped content to audio files; assign ahierarchy to the audio files to provide an audible website that mimics ahierarchy of the scraped content as represented at the original website;store the audible website in a database for retrieval by one or moreusers; receive a first user input indicative of an attempt to access theoriginal website; indicate the audible website is associated with theoriginal website in response to the user selection; and play portions ofthe audible website in response to a second user input.
 17. The serveraccording to claim 16, wherein the content includes text content andnon-text content.
 18. The server according to claim 17, wherein the textcontent includes menu content and is read by the text-to-speech engineto generate the audio files, and wherein the non-text content isdescribed by the text-to-speech engine to generate the audio files. 19.The server according to claim 16, wherein the content is an extensibleMarkup Language (XML) file, and wherein the audible website is generatedprior to the user selection of the original website and associatedaudible website.
 20. The server according to claim 16, wherein the setof instructions are further executed to: upload the audible website to acontent delivery network; establish a URL path for accessing the audiblewebsite; and map pages of the original website to pages of the audiblewebsite.